Lauren Branning
Lauren Branning is the daughter of Tanya Cross and Max Branning, sister of Bradley, Abi and Oscar and mother of Louie. Storylines The eldest child and daughter of Max Branning and Tanya Cross conceived during their affair in the early 1990s, Lauren moves to Walford with her parents and younger sister Abi in July 2006. In 2007, Lauren uncovers an affair between her father and half-brother Bradley 's fiancée, Stacey Slater after accidentally filming them kissing on her video camera. Lauren burns the footage onto a DVD, which is played on Christmas Day, exposing Max and Stacey's affair to the Branning's, and resulting in the breakdown of Lauren's parents' marriage. Initially romantically involved with Peter Beale, her best friend Lucy Beale's twin brother, Max disapproves of their relationship, and after ordering Peter to end the romance, throttles him after he retaliates when they have a secret meeting in the café. Shortly after, Max is left in a coma following a planned hit-and-run. It is ultimately revealed that Lauren is the culprit, but Tanya confesses to the crime, and is imprisoned, pleading guilty to attempted murder. This distresses Lauren, who reveals her intentions to spare her mother facing a jail sentence. Lauren is later found guilty of GBH with intent, and is sentenced to two years under supervision. In 2008, Lauren finds herself being groomed by paedophile Tony King, stepfather to her best friend, Whitney Dean, with whom he is having a sexual relationship. When Tony's paedophilia is revealed, Lauren is shocked after learning that she was about to become Tony's next victim. Lauren dumps Peter after he lies to his friends, claiming that he and Lauren had a sexual experience in the allotments. However, the couple plan a reunion and Lauren tells him she is ready to have sex, but Max bans Peter from seeing Lauren, uncovering their main intentions. Lauren later moves away from Walford when her father gets into debt, leading to the family's possessions being taken by bailiffs. She returns to Walford briefly at Christmas and breaks up with Peteragain before seeing him kissing Zsa Zsa Carter, resulting in a catfight between her, Zsa Zsa and Whitney. She later attends Bradley's funeral after he falls from the roof of The Queen Victoria public house after he attempts to flee Walford when the police accuse him of murdering Archie Mitchell. Lauren also celebrates her sixteenth birthday at a party in R&R nightclub, where her uncle Jack (After attending Abi's birthday dinner, Lauren informs her father that she is leaving Walford to spend the summer at a summer camp in the United States, departing Walford in June. Lauren (now played by Jacqueline Jossa) returns from America earlier than expected, after being expelled from school for smoking cannabis. She reveals that she has gained a new boyfriend, Edward Brooks, but he ends their relationship as a result of the long-distance. Lauren attends her cousin Billie's birthday party and as a present, she gives him alcohol which he quickly drinks; he is found dead of alcohol poisoning on the settee the following morning. Billie's's mother, Carol later attacks Lauren, stating that she encouraged Billie to get more and more drunk. Lauren later believes that her father was responsible for Archie's murder, after he tells her that Bradley wasn't the culprit and she notes his violent tendencies when he angrily confronts Jay Brown after he makes crude sexual remarks to Lauren after she rejects his attempts at propositioning her. Lauren confronts her father, who tells her that he is not the killer but knows who is; after witnessing her father and Stacey together, Lauren realises that Stacey is the killer, and tricks a confession out of her, which she tapes on her mobile phone. Lauren threatens to go the police, but she agrees to keep quiet after discovering that Archie raped Stacey. However, on Christmas Day, Lauren hands Janine Butcher the recording, leading to Stacey fleeing Walford after Janine exposes her as the killer. Lauren develops a crush on Whitney 's half-brother Ryan Malloy and he later succumbs, having sex with Lauren. The pair begin an affair. However, the relationship is almost terminated when Tanya uncovers the romance. Her relationship with Ryan later ends when he flees Walford after killing Rob Grayson, who had been sexually exploiting Whitney for financial gain. Upon discovering Max and Tanya are having an affair, despite Tanya re-marrying Greg Jessop, Lauren threatens to kill Max unless the affair ends, but it secretly continues. The affair is soon exposed, causing Max to leave Walford. Lauren is angered by her mother's actions originally, but is devastated that Tanya has been diagnosed with womb cancer. Lauren promises to support Tanya, but she struggles to cope with her mother's illness. She starts consuming alcohol to excess and almost ends Darren Miller and Jodie Gold's engagement by having sex with Darren. Afterwards, Lauren experiences having a casual relationship with Tyler Moon, who dumps him after realizing Whitney is still in love with him. Max later returns to Walford, and when Lauren uncovers that Tanya has stopped her treatment, begs Max to stay, eventually revealing her illness to him, prompting Max to remain in Walford. Lauren helps Abi get her job back in the Queen Vic and decides to party with her friends. Lauren catches Abi and Lee and assumes that Abi is making a move on him, however Abi drunkenly reveals that she and Lee previously had sex. Lauren promises not to tell Whitney even though Steven tells her to. That same day, Lauren helps Whitney do a pregnancy test, which is positive. In November 2017, Ben Mitchell finds a business card in Luke Wilmott-Brown (his boyfriend)'s wallet with the words "Project Dagmar" inked in. Ben knows that Dagmar is the bar in which Luke's dad, James, raped Ben's mother Kathy Beale in. After questioning him, Luke throws him up against a car and throttles him. A few days later, Jay Brown lets slip to Lauren Branning that Luke throttled Ben. Lauren, who works at Weyland&Co (the company which Luke works at and James Wilmott-Brown owns) asks her boss Josh Hemmings (Luke's half-brother, however she doesn't know this) what Project Dagmar is. He says he doesn't know. Upon asking Luke, he is also throttled by him, and would have killed him if Sophie hadn't intervened. All the while, Lauren is snooping round Luke's office trying to find evidence of Project Dagmar. She doesn't find anything on the tablet originally, however after searching "Kathy Beale" a host of files appear. She clicks on one and finds a keycode. She leaves the office, however later returns after realising she left her mug with her name on it. She notices the keypad on the meeting room door and looks at her slip of paper on which she wrote the keycode she found on the tablet. She tries it, and it opens. She looks at a plastic sign on a table which says "PROJECT DAGMAR - Scale 1:50." She removes the polystyrene cover over the table and it reveals a plan showing a greyed out Albert Square, with brilliant white tower blocks standing throughout. During the fallout of the Willmott-Brown reveal, Luke asks if he can talk to Lauren in private. He asks her if she can serve the eviction notice to Kathy, and says he will fire her if she does not. She appears to accept, but she returns and throws the papers in his face. Luke gives Josh a contract termination letter to give to Lauren. Josh later visits Lauren, and hands her the second copy of the contract which entitles Max to 15% of everything earned from the Weyland&Co development. Abi catches up with Lauren and asks her whats going on, and Lauren tells her and says she is going round to talk to Max about it. Abi says she will come, but Lauren says no. Abi snaps, and says she isn't going to let Lauren shut her out this time. They go to Max's house, and demand the truth. He gives it to them, and they are horrified. Lauren shows him the contract Josh gave her, and holds a lighter near it. Max tells her it is worth a lot of money, and she says she doesn't care, as long as he tells her the truth. Max tells her he did, and then Abi runs over to him and tells Lauren to back off. Lauren tells Jack and Max about Abi's baby, to her horror. However, Max already knows, and Abi and Lauren are annoyed. Max won't tell them why, so Lauren threatens to burn the contract. He doesn't tell them the truth. Lauren asks why he did it, and he says it was for the money, but Lauren thinks there is more to it. She throws the contract at him, and she shouts. He rips the paper up and says it was for revenge. Lauren is shocked. Stacey comes over, and Lauren shouts at her until she leaves, followed by Lauren and Abi. In December of the same year, Max tries to strangle Ian with Christmas lights as Lauren walks in. On Christmas Day, Max goes round each of his daughters houses with a present. Abi rejects him, but takes the presnet anway, whilst Lauren tells him she thinks he needs professional help. In December of the same year, Max tries to strangle Ian with Christmas lights as Lauren walks in. On Christmas Day, Max goes round each of his daughters houses with a present. Abi rejects him, but takes the presnet anway, whilst Lauren tells him she thinks he needs professional help. Later in the day, Tanya Cross returns and visits Ian. Tanya is shocked to discover that Abi is sharing Christmas dinner with Max. She accidentally lets slip that Lauren is planning to move to Glasgow, which Lauren backtracks on. Tanya tells Lauren that if she doesn't go to Glasgow she has to come back to Exeter with her. Tanya forces Lauren to pack a bag, to Ian and Kathy's dismay. Tanya then leaves to go and get Abi. Abi goes to tell Lauren, Ian and Kathy that Max killed Steven. Ian runs out and tries to kill Max - the Brannings have to stop him. Max goes up to the roof of the Queen Victoria and teeters on the edge. Lauren, Tanya, Stacey and Abi spot him and Lauren and Abi climb to the edge, hoping to talk him down. They manage to, but as they all climb back over, Lauren slips and grabs Abi. They fall to the ground, to Tanya, Max and Stacey's shock. Lauren comes round in the hospital. The nurse says she has sustained a "complex fracture which is compressing a nerve in your leg" and explains that they need to operate today. Lauren nods and asks how Abi is. The nurse says she is in good hands. Lauren asks about Abi's baby. At the end of the episode, Lauren is seen being operated on. Luckily Lauren was seen giving high fives to her son, Louie but Abi was pronounced brain dead.